


UnderCurrent

by sardonicFabulist



Series: UnderCurrent AU [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Demonic Possession, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Other, Short Chapters, Spoilers - No Mercy Route, Spoilers - Pacifist Route, UnderCurrent AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 05:29:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6502480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sardonicFabulist/pseuds/sardonicFabulist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>
    <b>Determination.</b>
  </i>
</p>
<p>The power to endure when death is inevitable. The power to persist even when things seem impossible.</p>
<p>Circumstances have never seemed quite as impossible as this.<br/> </p>
<p>An AU told in short bursts that become less impersonal as the characters become more familiar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How It Is

**Author's Note:**

> The Story created itself, but without [FooshFoosh](http://fooshfoosh.tumblr.com/)'s [theory of the ghost in the machine](http://fooshfoosh.tumblr.com/post/140933961071/the-ghost-in-the-machine), the last piece of the puzzle would not have been placed, and none of what follows would be possible. To you and those of you who think similarly and place those thoughts where others can see them and be inspired, you have my gratitude.
> 
> Additional thanks to [BarkingPup](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarkingPup/pseuds/BarkingPup), for letting me talk at them until it all clicked. Without your encouragement, none of what follows would be present.
> 
> And to [TheSketcherLass](http://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSketcherLass/pseuds/TheSketcherLass), who provided the initial spark of inspiration and continues to be one herself. Thank you.

The CORE is a geothermal generator, from what little Frisk can see and what little information is given. Alphys tells them that it produces magical electricity.

Frisk doesn’t know what’s so magical about it. Between the mechanical clanking and the periodic, ominous thu-thump of the machine’s inner workings, they don’t _see_ anything special.

But Frisk’s cell phone doesn't have a battery icon. The entire Underground is lit up, even the ruins. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of basic infrastructure outside of Hotland and the CORE. So maybe the “magical” part of magical electricity is that it goes where it's needed.

Emphasis: where it's _needed_.

Once upon a time, a royal scientist captured Determination without killing or destroying a single living being. Once upon a time, the scientist experimented with it, testing it in small, then larger and larger machines.

Once upon a time, Gaster and everything associated with him was erased from reality, but his greatest invention, somehow, mysteriously remained.

_**Determination.** _

The power to endure when death is inevitable. The power to persist even when things seem impossible.

Such as when there are no pipes or wires or even light bulbs in some cases.

Such as when all you are is a SOUL trapped in a tiny generator in the basement of a monster’s house.

Frisk passes through the Underground the first time - Chara is a stranded SOUL without a body, and latches on. They influence Frisk's thoughts. They change the way they see the world. They reach the end and, while they aren't exactly scraped off of Frisk's SOUL the second they leave the mountain, they get to see very little before their SOUL trapped in the True Lab drags them back in.

Time passes. Chara gets lonely. Frisk gets bored.

It all starts again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continue                     ♥ Reset 


	2. Curious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little play goes a long way.  
> That's all you're doing, right?  
> Playing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I did most of the inane things you can do on my first run.)  
> (Looking for more to do in Snowdin.)

There are times that they do something that, upon reflection, doesn’t really make sense.

They hit every lever in the Ruins. _Every_ lever.

They make motions to hit the dummy, but stop each time until the dummy gets bored and leaves.

They test Toriel’s patience by walking down the basement hall until she runs out of excuses when she comes to retrieve you.

They play Ball long past the point of boredom.

They dump all of the Hotland water cooler onto the ground, cup by cup, just to see what bystanders will say.

They stack thirty apostrophe-dogs on their head. That's too many.

If they ever feel your guidance, they don’t show it.

Between the human doing the talking and the spirit dripping through their words, it’s always the Other being odd. The Other talks and laughs and does quirky things to make friends. The Other keeps them going in spite of all obstacles.

The Other keeps them from flirting with Mom. The Other stops them from fighting everything in their path.

But at some point, _You_ get curious.

No one notices until it's too late and dust is scratching through their sleeves and under their nails like powdered glass.

Frisk is a peaceful SOUL, determined to not kill and not be killed, and the “accident” breaks them for just long enough. Chara is a SOUL, but is not alive. Chara is pure determination and keeps them both going. But now, they're also curious for reasons they don't have the presence of mind to realize. Soon, dust coats the Ruins.

The music stops. The lights dim. Chara presses onward.

Chara tries to exit the Ruins.

Chara kills Mom.

They leave the Ruins desolate and dark and it's like Chara has been asleep all this time and just started to wake up. The Ruins don't need that energy anymore, nobody is there, so they might as well take it back for themself and they do. Frisk is still broken, even more so than before, and Chara sinks that extra energy into them. With Frisk's brokenness and Chara's newfound awareness, so set on continuing and yet completely unused to controlling a living body, they shamble toward Snowdin.

Step after step, monster after monster, SOUL after SOUL, they clear the Underground. Frisk is still peaceful but Chara isn't alive, Chara can't feel - they can only be Determined to see things through, Determined to destroy their enemies, their body's enemies. And as they take back more and more of their scattered essence, their "magical electricity," they sink more of it into their distracted and hurting vessel until their LOVE is at its peak and the monsters are sequestered in one small laboratory underground, a few tiny rooms with minimal electrical needs.

When the monsters are all dead or rounded up, everything else goes dark and quiet. Humans don't deserve Chara's light - not even their own vessel. _Especially_ their own vessel.

Chara's essence buzzes and chatters like locusts in the vessel's SOUL - behind it all, a slow, steady heartbeat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continue                     ♥ Reset 


	3. Seize

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Control is the name of the game.  
> It MUST be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Ugh, MS Word is autocorrecting the gender-neutral pronouns. *edits everything*)

They don't know how long it's been by the time they wake up again. Frisk is sorry - they don't know what came over them. They never will truly understand.

There are consequences for their actions, but they sell their SOUL for the sake of their friends' freedom. Chara accepts - the domination of the other's SOUL is the closest they have ever been to feeling, to being.

Maybe....control is the only way to go free?

Yes. Yes, that must be the solution.

But another deadly, dusty run ends with another few beats of their heart before the CORE calls them back and Frisk's life resets itself and Chara feels frustration like they haven't since they were alive.

They try again.

No dice.

Just....anger. A _lot_ of anger.

(When did they start feeling this way?)

(When did they start feeling at all?)

Frisk's SOUL cries but holds on, because in spite of everything, they are also Determined.

The next few runs are hell under the earth. Frisk is pretty sure Sans knows something. Chara doesn't care, and the more they sink into Frisk, the more they feel at the end of each run, and the more they bring with them when it all starts over.

Eventually, even Frisk's tears follow them. Like some itchy, soppy, infectious disease. And then, when the next run has Chara's spirit standing - separately, not burrowed into their host like a parasite - mopping up incorporeal tears with the memory of the long-sleeved sweater they died in, it's Frisk's turn to offer a deal.

Frisk has nothing to offer. Their SOUL belongs to Chara. Most of the time, not even their _body_ is theirs. They offer anyway. Freedom. A happy ending. Things that are starting to look impossible.

But they want _control_.

Chara refuses. Hell continues. With each run, they scour the Underground and drive its inhabitants into hiding before rushing Sans (so much easier to _KILL_ when you've done the job a hundred times) and letting poor, sick, _naive_ Flowey make everything so much easier for them. With each end, they stretch their awareness past the mountain, trying, but never making it any further before they snap back to their center and wake in a patch of golden flowers. With each new beginning, they pick up a little more from their host, who dammit _was not supposed to control them._

They are Chara. They are DETERMINATION. They are an unstoppable force.

Their SOUL beats in the True Lab and resonates through the CORE. It has been for a hundred years - more if they count the resets.

They are tired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ♥ Continue                     Reset 


End file.
